Chapter 4 - The Bitter Retaliation
By Saturday morning, the war had spilled into the public eye.
The local society blogs and financial news outlets were having a field day. “Billionaire Divorce Threatens Landmark IPO,” read the headline on the Houston Business Journal. “Rivers Global CEO Accused of Infidelity as Wife Moves to Oust Him.”
Richard wasn't a man to lose quietly. By noon, a smear campaign against me had begun.
An anonymous source leaked a series of edited photographs to a prominent tabloid. The photos showed me having lunch at a secluded cafe in Austin with a handsome, younger man—Julian Montgomery, a prominent architect and an old friend from my college days. The caption implied that my sudden departure from the marriage wasn't due to Richard's infidelity, but rather my own long-standing affair.
My phone rang continuously. Paparazzi had gathered outside the St. Regis lobby.
I sat on the couch in my suite, staring at the screen, a familiar weight of exhaustion settling over me. For nine years, I had protected his reputation, and within twenty-four hours, he was trying to destroy mine.
The door to the suite knocked. I opened it to find Julian Montgomery himself standing there, looking genuinely apologetic, a bag of takeout in his hand.
"I’m so sorry, Elena," Julian said, stepping inside. "I saw the news. Those photos were from two years ago when we were designing the community center project for the city. They cropped out the other three board members who were sitting at the table."
"I know, Julian," I said, letting out a heavy sigh. "Richard knows it too. He doesn't care about the truth; he just wants to create enough noise to make the board hesitate on Monday."
Julian walked over to the table, setting down the food. He looked at me, his eyes filled with a quiet, steady warmth that I hadn't seen in a man's face in nearly a decade. "He’s desperate, Elena. A desperate billionaire is like a cornered animal. He’s going to use every dirty trick in the book. But you have something he doesn't."
"What's that?"
"The truth. And the loyalty of the people he’s stepped on to get to the top." Julian reached into his bag and pulled out a thumb drive. "George—the doorman from your estate? He called me this morning. He knew Richard would try to delete the main server backups of the house security logs. George copied them onto this before Richard’s IT team could wipe the drives."
I looked at the small silver drive in Julian's hand. It contained the definitive proof of Richard's months-long affair with Ivy Fontaine, complete with timestamps and high-definition footage from the perimeter cameras.
"Why did George do this?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly. "He could lose his job, his pension."
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"Because you were the only one in that house who treated him like a human being, Elena," Julian said softly. "When his wife was sick last year, you paid for the private specialist without telling Richard. People don't forget that kind of grace. Richard thinks money buys loyalty, but it only buys compliance. Loyalty is earned."
I took the drive, the cold metal feeling like a shield in my palm. The panic Richard had tried to inflict on me was about to return to its rightful owner.
